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We're scheduling an anti-SOPA blackout for 1/18/12. Let Google & FB know.
- mbreese 15y agoIt should be mentioned that this is just one person arbitrarily picking a day.
- scoofy 15y agoGame theory would suggest that, since SOPA opposition is in part a coordination problem, one person arbitrarily picking a day may be all it takes to get multiple groups with similar interests to organize.
- Mithrandir 15y agoI could be dead wrong, but I seriously doubt that Google or any publicly traded company will shut down for a day. I just can't see them taking that big of a step in protest of the SOPA. They'd probably to announce it first, if it was a complete blackout; but if they didn't, someone going to the site would probably see just a blank page with information on the SOPA etc. Call me cynincal, but I'll bet 9 times out of 10 that the consequence would be the person either just clicking the Tweet/Like/+1 button (unless those sites have also blacked-out) and/or going to another site that provides the same service ("Google is down, so I'll use Bing" "Facebook is down, I'll use Twitter/Google+") That's not all though; other apps, companies, etc. that rely on Google or whoever would also have to shutdown temporarily (except if the parent site kept the APIs open, but then what's the point?) Is that fair to those companies, to those coders? You might say it's a short term loss, long term gain, but other people might not see it that way; e.g. "This site is down, so I'll use this other service until they are back up." I'm not talking about why they shouldn't but why they wouldn't if they don't. More importantly though, how will this change anything? I'm not saying people or companies shouldn't protest, but I think the only thing the company that blacks-out their site will get will be a lot of angry customers and investors. More people will be aware of the SOPA, and maybe mainstream media will at least mention it, but talk doesn't change unless action follows. Perhaps I'm over-thinking this, but to me it just doesn't seem to be the most effective way of protesting.
- mbreese 15y agoI guess that I assumed that they were talking about putting up a permanent black bar at the top of their pages with information about SOPA and their reasons for opposing it. I hadn't seriously considered that anyone would take down their entire site. If organizers are hoping that a large site will completely go offline, I think they are nuts. This is one of the problems with a very decentralized anti-SOPA movement - there is no organization. I think that's why people are just hoping for a Google to take the lead.
- Natsu 15y agoGoogle, at least, could just do one of their doodles. That wouldn't be quite like shutting down for a day, but it's something they've done before and those doodles have gotten a lot of attention in the past. I wonder what creative ways they could find to inform the public about SOPA in the next week or so? What's the best anti-SOPA argument any of you have seen?
- Joakal 15y agoThere's some anti-SOPA jokes here: http://www.reddit.com/r/sopafunny/ http://www.reddit.com/r/sopafunny/
- dlss 15y agoI assumed they were talking about something akin to wikipedia shutting down for all of italy for a day. See http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/10/blackout-in-italy-the-first-time-wikipedia-worldwide-has-done-anything-of-this-kind/ http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/10/blackout-in-italy-the-first...
- felipemnoa 15y agoWhy not just replace the website with a full page banner that the user can close after reading? It will inform the user without pissing them off that they cannot use the website.
- Kiall 15y agoExactly - This is what I would like to see Google, Facebook, Twitter etc doing.. It gets the message across without driving users to competitors...
- gojomo 15y agoSometimes when people say 'blackout', they mean exactly what you are suggesting: a noticeable barrier/interstitial, rather than a true shutdown. The reddit link as submitted doesn't have enough context to be sure what the proposer (user 'sub_par') means.
- Mithrandir 15y agoI don't know what the OP means by 'blackout', but apparently others on r/SOPA have repeatedly used it to mean 'complete shutdown'. http://www.reddit.com/r/SOPA/comments/o8aty/petition_to_googlefacebooktwitter_etc_for/ http://www.reddit.com/r/SOPA/comments/o8aty/petition_to_goog... http://www.reddit.com/r/SOPA/search?q=blackout&restrict_sr=on http://www.reddit.com/r/SOPA/search?q=blackout&restrict_...
- Joakal 15y ago"This domain has been seized to comply with SOPA act (1). If this was in error, please follow these simple steps: 1) File a domain release request to your local Federal Court. 2) " etc. By 'simple', make it look like it'll take a long time and a lot of legalese. A good touch is an official-looking logo.
- Mithrandir 15y agoI can see some senator(s) coming along and crying about how companies have too much power because these companies promote "intellectual property theft," then a year later complaining that government needs to get out of business because the companies are going bankrupt. Oh the irony.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- Joakal 15y agoCan you translate the second line?
- Sniffnoy 15y agoI'm wondering whatever happened to Wikipedia's blackout. Since they're the first ones to actually put forth a serious blackout suggestion (as opposed to this one guy's just announcing a day), shouldn't people be coordinating with them?
- RKearney 15y agoSoooo because one person on Reddit said I should blackout my sites on 1/18/12 means I should? I'll be a little more involved once I hear Google/Yahoo/Microsoft/Wikipedia/Facebook start mentioning dates.
- GigabyteCoin 15y agoNot going to work. For the same reasons that collective price fixing never works. Somebody is going to see an opportunity to charge less than their competitors (or in this case, to stay online when their competitors are not).
- scoofy 15y agoThis doesn't take into account the payoffs of some sort of moral sentiment that may be valuable to the CEOs. Not all payoffs are monetary.
- samstave 15y agoWhy not coincide with #OWS' Occupy Congress?
- joy7joy 15y agoI am impressed with any decision being made on this. I think it's justified no matter how they do it. And if they do something outrageous it would only match what they are choosing to take a stand against. It's a NEED! And for a day...who cares. It's statement that should be made. Anyone worried about the outcome of one day with Google being down aren't really thinking about what is at stake in the long run.